Some of the women in our church were setting up for our roast beef dinner this evening and realized we had way, way too much silverware. They started sorting and realized that a lot of it was stamped sterling silver flatware, dating back to pre-Union times (the flatware all has F.M.C. monogramed on it for First Methodist Church). It shouldn't be run through our commercial dishwasher, so they started separating the stainless flatware from the sterling silver. When they got the first box full, they stopped and will come back next week to finish the job.

Gold is too ostentatious, and copper is too utilitarian, so is silver the most spiritually fashionable metal?

A lady friend of mine in the jewellery business told me that silver crosses and anhks and other common religious patterns always sell better than gold versions of the same design. She believes it’s because gold is not spiritually fashionable, and never has been (my wife thinks it’s because more clothing options happen to match with silver than gold). It could also be that silver is much cheaper than gold…  I would like to explore the idea of a spiritually fashionable metals.

Things have changed over the years, lets look back on the dawn of man and the fashion of wearing religious iconography.